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anthem , n.
    It was our sixth (maybe seventh) date. I had cooked and you had insisted on doing the dishes. You wouldn’t even let me dry. Then, when you were done, smelling of suds, you sat back down and I poured you another glass of cheapish wine. You put your legs in my lap and slouched as if we’d just had a feast for thousands and you’d been the only chambermaid on duty to clean it up.
    There was a pause. I was still scared by every gap in our conversation, fearing that this was it, the point where we had nothing left to say. I was still trying to impress you, and I still wanted to be impressed by you, so I could pass along pieces of your impressiveness in stories to my friends, convincing myself this was possible.
    “If you were a country,” I said, “what would your national anthem be?”
    I meant a pre-existing song — “What a Wonderful World” or “Que Sera, Sera” or something to make it a joke, like “Hey Ya!” (“I would like, more than anything else, for my nation to be shaken like a Polaroid picture.”)
    But instead you said, “It would have to be a blues song.” And then you looked up at the ceiling, closed your eyes, and began to sing a blues riff:
    Nuh-nah-nuh-nuh
    My work makes me tired
    Nuh-nah-nuh-nuh
    But I gotta pay my rent
    Nuh-nah-nuh-nuh
    My parents never loved me
    Nuh-nah-nuh-nuh
    Left all my emotions bent
    Nuh-nah-nuh-nuh
    I know what I’m here for
    Nuh-nah-nuh-nuh
    Make your dishes so clean
    Nuh-nah-nuh-nuh
    Just be careful what you wish for
    Nuh-nah-nuh-nuh
    ’Cause most my shit is unseen
    Nuh-nah-nuh-nuh
    So many men
    Nuh-nah-nuh-nuh
    Fall into my trap
    Nuh-nah-nuh-nuh
    But, boy, I gotta tell you
    Nuh-nah-nuh-nuh
    You might rewrite that map
    Nuh-nah-nuh-nuh
    Because I’m a proud nation
    Nuh-nah-nuh-nuh
    It’s written here on my flag
    Nuh-nah-nuh-nuh
    It’s a fucked-up world, boy
    Nuh-nah-nuh-nuh
    So you better make me laugh
    Then you stopped and opened your eyes to me. I applauded.
    “Don’t sit there clapping,” you said. “Rub this blues singer’s feet.”
    You never asked what my anthem was. But that’s okay, because I still don’t know what I’d answer.

antiperspirant , n.
    “There is nothing attractive about smelling like baking powder,” I said.
    “Baking soda ,” you corrected.
    “So if I want to make a pound cake, I can throw some butter, flour, and sugar into your armpit —”
    “Why are we having this conversation? Remind me again?”
    “You no longer smell the yeasty goodness that you apply under your arms, because you are completely used to it. I, however, feel like I am dating a Whole Foods.”
    “Fine,” you said.
    I was surprised. “ ‘Fine’?”
    “Let the record show, I have stepped onto the slippery slope of compromise in the name of promoting peace and harmony. There will be a ceremonial burning of the deodorant in ten minutes. I hope it’s flammable.”
    “It’s just that I really hate it,” I told you.
    “Well, I hate your toe hair.”
    “I’ll wear socks,” I promised. “All the time. Even in the shower.”
    “Just be warned,” you said. “Someday you’ll ask me to give up something I really love, and then it’s going to get ugly.”

antsy , adj.
    I swore I would never take you to the opera again.

arcane , adj.
    It was Joanna who noticed it first. We were over at her house for dinner, and she said something about being able to see the woman across the street doing yoga in the mornings, and how strange it looked when you were watching it from a distance.
    “So how is Miss Torso doing?” you asked.
    And I said, “Perhaps we should ask the pianist.”
    Joanna just looked at us and said, “It used to be that you each had your own strange, baffling references. Now you have them together.”
    People often say that when couples are married for a long time, they start to look alike. I don’t believe that. But I do believe their sentences start to look alike.

ardent , adj.
    It was after sex, when there was still heat